Intervention in the historical center of São Paulo

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1 EXTENDED ABSTRACT Intervention in the historical center of São Paulo Place Between Places João Infante Lisbon November 2013 The present work was developed within the project subjects performed during the academic year of 2012/2013, under the exchanging program on the Architecture and urbanism college of São Paulo University. The present report was submited for the Master degree in Architecture by Instituto Superior Técnico of Universidade Técnica de Lisboa. Developing a project report proved to be of great interest in the possibility of deepening the knowledge about the city of São Paulo and the solutions for the revitalization of its historical center. Also allowed to develop a reflection on the potential of urban public space as an articulator of the different places of the city, between public and private, and the importance of an equipment project with scale and program of considerable dimensions. In this way is deceloped an ancillary study on issues relating to the city of São Paulo, its origin and evolution to the current demographic and social landscape. A more deeply study is conducted on the issues related to the Central Area and the historic city center, and formulates strategies to revitalize the infrastructure level of public space and housing. It follows issues related to the typologies proposed, with particular emphasis on the study and interpretation of Social Service of Commerce (SESC), a private equipment with strong social concerns, existing in the main cities of Brazil. Extended abstract 1

2 1. Analysis goals -Reflection and interpretation on the historical center of São Paulo and understanding of problems related to social/demographic, housing and public space organization. -Study of typology and program of SESCs equipment while in the context of the metropolis of São Paulo. 2. Project goals -Define a strategy for improvement and enhancement of the area contained within the perimeter of intervention. -Studying and designing the infrastructure of public space, along proposing the expansion of existing SESC Carmo and a joint strategy for new residential buildings. Contextualization The work is structured in a first phase of contextualization and understanding of the place set for intervention, in recognition of the different flows and dynamics of the city, the social, economic and cultural needs. São Paulo presents itself today as one of the major metropolises around the world because of its territorial dimension as well as for its high number of inhabitants and population density, by offering opportunities, goods and services. It is a pulsating city, where mobility and transport infrastructures become indispensable, but it loses its the inhabitants in the center for housing in the suburbs and outskirts. Housing strategies stipulated in the past showed no concern to encourage housing in the city center or the lifestyle associated with it, tried before, in favor of the housing market, pointing out the middle and upper classes for housing in large gated communities and away from the center. This leads to little or no controlled growth of the suburbs of São Paulo, and consequently the increase in transports infrastructures and car dependence. 2 Resumo alargado Throughout the growth of the city arose different intervention plans in road system, directly in the central area of São Paulo in the district of Sé and Republic. Protrude from the proposed Victor da Silva Freire in 1911 with a system of radial and perimeter roads in the center, and later the Irradiation Perimeter in 1929 by Prestes Maia.

3 Thinking solely dedicated to car mobility led to chaotic morphology which the center presents today. The center is then seen under capitalist thinking, or just as a place for the exchange of goods and services, and very little as a simple living and leisure space to the resident population. The SESC is created September 13, 1948 by the National Confederation of Trade for enjoyment of merchants and their families, but also accessible to the whole rest of the population, with a strong offer of services and activities related to sports, health, leisure and recreational stimulation of cultural practice. The SESC equipements always works with projects and plans attentive to urban morphology and social needs of the place where they belong. To support the proposed solution a set of three Case Studies Study cases are presented, which were selected because of their interventions in the city of São Paulo and reflection around the various issues under which the project in question is structured. The first one is an urban plan for the revitalization of an urban area of considerable dimensions, Park D. Pedro II, which plays an important role with the project in question, by the close proximity and by providing infrastructure and equipment, along with the thought that seeks to create public spaces properly sized and inserted into the existing urban fabric. The last two are private equipment SESCs, and presented an important contribution for the programmatic and spatial organization as well as the beneficial relationship they establish with the public space in which they operate. A Perimeter of Intervention is selected, a set of a few blocks along the «heart» of the city chosen by the current devaluation and almost abandoned, as well as its potential and interstitial proximity with other relevant Sé square Intervention perimeter Park D. Pedro II urban areas in the center, the Cathedral Square tho the west and Park D. Pedro II to the east. A place between places. Fig. 1 - Place between Places. Extended abstract 3

4 Initially, the project presented establishes an intervention strategy in the area bounded by stipulating three main spheres: public space, equipment and housing. Linked together for the first, the infrastructure of public space, seen as common element around which the others are structured, the relation between the public and private spaces in the city. Public space seen as an essential stimulus to the ownership of the center and the sedentarization and valuation of housing. The public space as a place for single pass or to the permanence and recreational moments, and even to propitiate social activities. With regard to housing, the perimeter is characterized by high instability of the existing tenement buildings, lack of incorrect assembly and occupation of lots. Then draw up a set of strategies in the redesign of public space with some interventions in road infrastructure, and more significantly in housing. Selected a set of lots that had abandonment, insecurity in the construction or bad use of space, mostly open parking lots or abandoned buildings, poorly preserved or illegal occupation. New buildings for multifamily housing are projected in the identified lots, with the ground floor always thought of as a continuation of the public space, with spaces dedicated to trade and services. The number of total removed houses is less than the number of nem apartments obtained in all the new buildings proposed, losing and gaining about 92 to 177. The final part of the project focuses on the design and drafting of the expansion of existing SESC Carmo, today is a small building that seeks to contain in itself a program too demanding for the space it has. It is assumed then the transfer of that building to another use, whether or not the SESC, such as offices or administration spaces. The new SESC Carmo appropriates the spaces between Rua do Carmo and Clovis Bevilácqua square, a high elevation, and Park D. Pedro II at low elevation along the river. As it appropriates territory, the equipment is conceived and designed as a network of semi-public spaces that belong Fig. 2 - Around an empty space. simultaneously to SESC infrastructure and public space. Becoming almost impossible to determine the boundaries between public and private. 4 Resumo alargado

5 The top floors of the Rua do Carmo are assigned to activities that do not require such direct contact with the public spaces outside, dental clinic, rooms for different types of classes and administration offices and meetings of the SESC. The main SESC square, at an intermediate elevation and accessible by a set of stairs, is the place of convergence, activities and meeting, a large outdoor space around which the building volumes devoted to cultural and recreational component are organized. Then along the hillside garden which lies to the north, there is the coverage area of the volume devoted to sports activities, receiving sports fields and outdoor pools dedicated to leisure. The volume sports with independent access by the Carmelitas Street, offers a set of pools and indoor courts for sports, accessible to all age groups. The building itself SESC absorbs the existing structure from the Metro overpass that penetrates into the hillside. Av. Rangel Pestana Fig. 3 - Project axonometry. Praça Clóvis Bevilácqua Rua Silveira Martins Rua do Carmo Rua Joaquim dos Santos Andrade Rua das Carmelitas Rua Frederico Alvarenga As later critical to the project, the concern whit the issues raised by the high complexity of the proposed equipment, either by the exacerbated program and dimension that it establishes in the city, appropriation of space and (healthy) conflict with pre existing urban structures, focused on the role of the building in the city rather than an exhaustive detailing of interior spaces and design solutions. Extended abstract 5

6 Still, it is believed that the project developed a right set of ideas and thoughts to the contemporary city, which shall maintain and be encouraged at the common thought. Proposing that the great equipments of metropolises are not only seen as a physical object, but rather as a set of public and private spaces, which interact with the city and become part of it. Fig. 4 - Project prespectives. 6 Resumo alargado